Dominoes are a type of gaming piece used in many different ways. They can be stacked on end in long lines so that when one domino is tipped over, it causes the next domino in line to tip over, and then the next after that, and so on, forming very complex patterns that can even be set up indoors. In addition to being a fun form of entertainment, the physical domino effect can be useful in teaching children about simple chains of events and the idea of the law of cause and effect.
There are a variety of games that can be played with dominoes, most of which fall into two broad categories: block and scoring games. In the block game, players draw a hand of dominoes and then take turns placing them edge to edge on top of each other. The player who places the last domino wins.
The scoring games allow players to compete to reach a certain number or score before their opponents. The most popular domino sets are double six (28 tiles) and double nine (55 tiles). Some sets come with larger numbers, but these are often not as usable for playing games because of the size and weight of the individual pieces.
While the popularity of dominoes has declined in recent years, some people still consider them a fun pastime. In fact, there are a number of domino websites where people can find and share domino games. Some of these sites also offer online domino contests where players can compete against others.
One person who has taken dominoes to an art level is Lily Hevesh, a 20-year-old professional domino artist whose YouTube channel has more than 2 million subscribers. She creates amazing domino displays for movies, TV shows, and events, including the launch of a Katy Perry album. Hevesh has even worked on team projects involving more than 300,000 dominoes.
When Hevesh begins a project, she has to take into account a lot of physical factors to ensure that her setup works. For example, she has to understand how gravity works in order to set up her larger domino installations. Gravity pulls a knocked-over domino toward Earth, which means it will crash into the next domino and set off a chain reaction.
To see this for yourself, place several dominoes in a line and carefully observe them as they tumble down. Then, reset the dominoes and lightly touch the first one with your finger. Do the dominoes all fall the same way? Watch them for a few more times and make note of what you see. You can learn a lot about how dominoes work from this simple experiment. The same principles that govern how a domino falls are the same ones that govern the function of nerve cells, or neurons, in your body. A nerve impulse travels at a constant speed, does not lose energy along the way, and can only go in one direction.